Rise of the Golden Idol Is a Fitting Sequel to One of the Best Puzzle Games of Recent Years

How do you follow up a beloved one-off – retaining what made it special, but expanding its world and ideas meaningfully? Color Gray has managed a truly deft balance here – this is effectively the game you know, but a setting you really, really don’t. Far from continuing where we left off, Rise picks up whole centuries after the events of the first game, in this world’s equivalent of the 1970s. For fans of Case, it means that, even if you have all the backstory, you’re just as lost in the context of this world, giving you the thrill of putting all the pieces back together once again.

This is a world where the very real Idol of the first game has not only become a myth, but been physically broken into pieces – and we discover what happens when people begin putting them back together again. To give away any more would spoil the surprises, but it’s safe to say that while it deals in similar themes to the first game, this is a very different story.

On first glance, you might assume that this is a very similar game, however. The basic formula remains – each level gives you a look at a very specific (almost always violent) moment in time, and offers the option to click on the people and objects in that moment, picking up clues.